Traditional Hopi agricultural methods

Excerpt

MANY soils in the arid and semiarid U.S. Southwest are poorly suited to cultivation unless irrigated. Severe climate and lack of supplemental water generally prevent profitable crop production on these soils. But in some instances these limitations have been overcome by unusually intensive management practices.

Agriculture on the Hopi Indian Reservation in northeastern Arizona exemplifies this type of management. Soils that the Hopi farm are in classes VI and VII and subclasses e and c of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's land capability classification system. Soils in classes VI and VII generally are not suited to crop production unless unusually intensive management is applied or major earthmoving or other costly reclamation work is carried out (8). Soils in subclass e are subject to erosion unless close-growing plant cover is maintained. For soils in subclass c, the main limitation is climate that is too dry or too cold.

A harsh land

Despite the harsh climatic conditions and low precipitation, the Hopi people have developed a system of agriculture that has sustained them for hundreds of years.

The Hopi inhabit a semiarid region in the south central portion of the Colorado Plateau. This area was settled by …